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Maria-“What happened to the crib? The mattress is higher.”
John- “It has an adjustable waist!”
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Joseph- (singing to no particular tune) “What’s your name? What’s your name? What’s your name?”
Sarah- “What are you doing, Joseph?”
Joseph- “I’m singing ‘what’s your name?'”
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On the second Saturday of May Mom took us kids down to the tulip festival in Orange City, Iowa. Our Grandma, (who lives about five minutes from Orange City), met us there, and we had a great time together. We watched a parade, ate a Dutch almond bar dessert, and watched a show with high school girls and boys singing and dancing dutch songs and dances. These are some of the best pictures from our visit:
The queen of the tulip festival is on the right and one of the ladies of the court is on the left. I love their costumes.
Street Cleaners in Dutch Costume
A beautiful baby girl in Dutch costume.
A cute little girl scrubbing the street.
Pretty Tulips
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I received my First Holy Communion
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John Paul and Mango (in flight suit) doing school.
Clover playing 'dead birdie.'
"Ahhh. . . Complete relaxation."
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The other day, Maria uncovered the flight suit (pretty much a bird diaper) I have for Penelope. I had put it there about six to eight months ago, when Penelope was not big enough to wear it. I was so happy when I tried it on her, and saw that it fit perfectly. Penelope is not as pleased as I am, though.
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P.S: Landon says he wasn’t ready when this picture was taken.
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This afternoon, the Johnathan, Alex and Joseph were enjoying their Christmas gifts. Joseph and Alex each received a package of eight juice boxes.
Here they are displaying the flavors they were given.
Johnathan put together these little wooden toys and painted them himself. He also made that orange lego recycling truck.
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My nativity scene set-up is completed today, Epiphany, which commemorates the arrival of the magi in Bethlehem. This nativity was a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa on Mom’s side.
This was also the day we opened up presents from Mom and Dad. We didn’t do it on Christmas because with our trip to Florida and the sickness that struck immediately when we got back, Mom had no time for shopping. We have thought about opening gifts on Epiphany for a couple years, since that was the day Jesus received his gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, but we had never done it.
Dad handed out the first presents to the four boys. They were small, identical square boxes about two and a half inches on every side. Dad built suspense by making the boys count to seventeen in a painfully slow manner before they could open them. After the number ten, Alexander tried to say seventeen at the beginning of each number. “Sev- eleven, sev-twelve, sev-thirteen,” etc. etc.
Finally, the boys reached seventeen, but not before sixteen and a half, sixteen and three quarters, and sixteen and seven eights. When seventeen was reached, the boys tore into the wrapping paper and opened the box inside. Alexander declared, “Springies!”
“Slinkies,” I corrected him.
“Oh, I knew that,” he mumbled.
Dad has a fondness for slinkies. I remember him showing me how they worked when he found one at his friend’s house a long time ago.
It wasn’t long before Dad and the boys had the slinkies lined up on the stairs for a race. Unfortunately, our stairs are too wide for slinkies, so the race was abandoned and attention was turned to the other gifts.
The first present I opened was a calendar. Dad made me guess what was inside the wrapping paper, but the size and fact I get one every year gave it away. I got it right on the first guess.
This calendar has some beautiful pictures inside.
Maria and I each got one of these sun catcher kits. She got butterflies and I got a parrot.
This is a cross stitch pattern. I can’t wait to get started.
This is a pair of sun conures. They are not pets, they are two year old breeder birds. I got one for Christmas and I bought the other bird. Aren’t they the most beautiful thing in the world?
Well, that’s all for now. I will post more later as I get going on the cross stitch and sun catchers.
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Joseph and I were playing one morning on my bed, when he told me he was tired. So we got under the blankets and laid down, pretending to sleep. Just then, Maria walked into the room and decided to climb on board the bed. One by one, the rest of the children followed, Landon, John Paul, and then last but not least, Alexander. It was a miracle that everyone stayed still long enough to photograph.
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Hello, it has been a while! I am going to start posting some pictures from the trip we took with Grandma and Grandpa Frederes. There are so many pictures I won’t possibly be able to post them all, so I will begin a series of post with those pictures I think the most worth looking at. I shall start with some pictures of our family in the airport and arriving in Florida.
When we arrived at the resort, Grandma and Grandpa met us and helped us take our luggage to our rooms.
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Last night, the first snowfall covered everything in a thin layer of snow, transforming the appearance of the landscape. The reaction that John, Alexander, and Joseph have to the snow in the yard is amusing. For example, Joseph has been perpetually opening the front door to grab a handful of snow and look at and occasionally, eat. Also, when I went to get some frozen blueberries to eat earlier, I was discovered that John and Alex, who had been making snowballs galore, were also saving them inside the freezer.
Though I will come to hate winter later, for now I welcome the beauty of the snow. Just two and a half weeks ago, our yard was decorated by little flaming red trees, now it is dressed in white.
Now that it has snowed, I get to bring out one of my favorite pairs of earrings.
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It is the tradition in our family to go to the St. Margaret’s Homeschool Group all saints eve party, but this year, it was cancelled, so at the last minute we decided to go trick or treating for the first tim in our lives. Joseph and I had costumes from the store, but Landon, Maria, John and Alex were wearing homemade costumes.
Joseph is dressed as the High King Peter from the Chronicles of Narnia. (I love the books and the movies so I told Mom to get that costume for him. Isn’t he cute?)
Maria and I put together this bride costume.
Johnathan made this costume out of boxes all by himself. Later Mom puts tin foil on his costume.
I am dressed as a Japanese geisha.
Alex is Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier.
Landon made this Obi-wan Kenobi costume.
Here is John being outfitted in tin foil by Mom.
This is my candy pile after coming home from our trick or treating. Much of the candy was things that will give me a headache so I ended up giving most of it away.
Maria had more candy than any body.
Landon’s candy.
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It just seems that nothing around here has happened that is worth writing a whole blog post, so I’ll just mention them all in a breif summary of the last few weeks. On September twenty seventh, Landon, John, and I slept out in a tent in the backyard. I peeked out the tent window and saw the constellation of Orion, which is only visible during the cold months of the year, gleaming in the South-East sky. This, along with the fact that I just pulled out my first long-sleeved shirt today, is a sure sign that winter is coming.
Landon turned twelve on October 1st, and he got a radio controlled car for his birthday. He couldn’t make up his mind about what kind of cake to have until the last minute, so Mom had to pick him up a cheese cake from the grocery store.
Tuesday I am going to get a pair of new pointe shoes, because i have grown out of my old shoes. I can’t wait to dance in the new shoes, the satin outside of the shoes is so shiny when they are new. We are now doing exercises away from the barre (without holding on to anything) in my pre-pointe class.
That’s all the things I can think of, so I shall close this post.
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